Want to see how your yields compared to National/State/County Averages?

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), which is a division of the USDA, has a very good and interactive web site that anyone can access to get a wide variety of reports. A sampling of information you can obtain from this site is crop progress reports; average yields for crops in the United States, Montana, or Richland County; national, state, and county rankings in specific crops and much more.

There is so much valuable information included on this site that it would be hard to list all of the reports you can find. To access the site, simply log onto http://www.nass.usda.gov/. Once there you will want to click on the data and statistics tab and the reports are fairly easy to find from there.

Weed Control Guides and Weed Identification Resources

As temperatures start to warm up and the mind turns to planting season, you may be thinking about your pre-plant weed control options. To help with decisions on which products to use and when, I have several copies of the 2010 North Dakota Weed Control Guide available for anyone who would like one to come in and pick up. If you would like one, come in and see me or send an email to tfine@montana.edu and I will do my best to get one to you.

For a complete list of weed identification sites and weed control issues for Montana, please visit http://www.ipm.montana.edu/CropWeeds/index.htm

Farm Management web site helps in making many decisions

Decisions regarding what to plant, how much to rent acreage for, whether to buy or lease equipment and the like are almost always the most difficult decisions for a farmer/rancher to make. To help make those decisions just a little bit easier, a web site has been created with downloadable software that producers can manipulate to input numbers that are unique to their operation.

There are too many spreadsheets to mention them all, but basically they fall under the categories of: Financial Management and Analysis; Machinery Management; Crop Production, Finance, and Marketing; Livestock and Forage Production, Finance, and Economics; Marketing; and Enterprise Crop Budgets.

All of the programs are free to download and use. To find them, visit http://www.montana.edu/softwaredownloads/

Recognition should be given to Duane Griffith, Extension Economic specialist, and the many other contributors for creation of the workable documents and web site.

Initial Pesticide Applicator Training

On March 25, from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm, there will be a pesticide certification class for new applicators at the Nemont Friendship Room in Scobey, Montana. This will be an initial training for producers who are not licensed, as well as a chance for licensed private applicators to obtain 6 recertification credits. Commercial credits have been applied for, but confirmation of credits is still pending.

For more information, or to pre-register, please contact the Daniels County Extension Office at 487-2861 or email Nicole Winkler at nwinkler@montana.edu. A complete agenda may be viewed at http://www.pesticides.montana.edu/PAT/2010/Region4.html.